Known in the art is a mechanized multitier storage apparatus (See, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 3,063,769), comprising a housing, load-carrying brackets located therein, removable shelves installed on the brackets, and a carriage connected with a drive producing vertical movement and provided with shelf-engaging means.
This known storage apparatus operates as follows.
The vertical movement drive entrains the carriage up to the level of the selected removable shelf which, by means of the shelf-engaging means, moves from the load-carrying brackets onto the carriage. Then, the carriage, with the shelf, is moved by the drive to a loading and unloading position. Upon completing the process of loading or unloading, the shelf is returned by the carriage and shelf-engaging means onto the load-carrying brackets, i.e., to the previous location.
The known mechanized multitier storage apparatus has a cumbersome structure and occupies a relatively large area, since its carriage is located in front of the removable shelves. This increases the width of the storage apparatus at least twofold. Additionally, the storage apparatus has limited technological and functional potentialities, inasmuch as it serves only for storage of the load.
Known in the art is a mechanized multitier storage apparatus, (See, e.g., U.S.S.R. Publication 695,901), comprising a housing with load-carrying brackets, removable shelves installed on load-carrying brackets, and carriages connected with a drive for vertical movement. The carriages are arranged, one per lateral side of removable shelves, along the width thereof. Each of the carriages is provided with a pull-out shelf-engaging means.
Operation of the storage apparatus is similar to the operation of the initially described apparatus one, except that the carriages move vertically from the lateral sides of the shelves, and the shelf-engaging means shift the selected shelf outside the housing.
However, the storage apparatus has limited technological and functional potentials, since it cannot be used in combination with other production equipment requiring simultaneous loading/unloading of the storage apparatus with pallets with unit loads placed thereon and piecewise delivery and return of the load onto the pallets installed on the shelves.
Thus, for example, employment of the storage apparatus in combination with an N/C machine tool and an industrial robot for piecewise feeding of the workpiece to the machine tool allows only consecutive operation of the machine tool and the storage apparatus, because, during operation of the machine tool, the storage apparatus cannot function, since it retains one of the shelves in the pulled out position to ensure a possibility of piecewise feeding the workpiece to the machine tool by means of the robot. Moreover, when the storage apparatus operates during its loading/unloading with pallets, the machine tool and the robot must be stopped, which considerably lowers productivity.